The regular 2002 album originally priced between $15 to $17 in the stores
is the regular U.S. release. The 2002 limited release is indicated by a higher price and a
sticker indicating its "limited" nature on the front plastic. The musical contents are
the same on all the 2002 products except for the inclusion of one bonus track on the
limited editions. The value of the different cover inserts (on the trading block) is yet to
be determined. They could very well end up useless unless you acquire a whole set of 5
covers.

The 2003 trilogy set is essentially the original three albums from the films combined into
one package (with no extra music). The 2006 set includes the complete recordings, priced
initially for between $55 and $65 (the list retail price for this set is $15 higher than
the complete set of the first score in 2005), and features the DVD with 5.1 Dolby Digital
surround sound along with three CDs that offer 188 minutes from the score in 16-bit stereo
sound. Other higher resolution variants on sound quality exist on the DVD (see review for
details).

The 2010 Howe Records album called "The Rarities Archive" was only available
in the back cover of the Doug Adams book The Music of The Lord of the Rings
Films: A Comprehensive Account of Howard Shore's Scores. That book had an
MSRP of $60 but initially sold new for under $40.

Buy it... on the 2006 complete set if you seek one of the best
scores of the digital age of film music in a DVD-quality presentation
that will, if you are properly equipped, stun both you and the people
living down the street.

Avoid it... on the 2006 complete set if you do not use a surround
sound system for your regular listening enjoyment and would prefer, in
terms of content, the 73-minute 2002 album of highlights from the
score.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers: (Howard
Shore) To the joy of crowds around the world, the 2002 sequel to The
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring followed its
predecessor by only a year, proving that gone were the days of
multi-year waits for fans of popular fantasy motion picture franchises.
It had then seemed that only yesterday Peter Jackson's incredible The
Fellowship of the Ring had taken the world by storm, and yet Jackson
and his co-writers and co-producers had already been working on the
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Lord of the
Rings: The Return of the King extensively while the first film's
final touches were being applied. Much of the success of the franchise
is owed to the significant planning of the three films in the late
1990's, especially in relation to the intelligent adaptation of J.R.R.
Tolkien's extremely long and complex tale. The reasons for the
prosperity of The Fellowship of the Ring, both in terms of awards
and popular opinion, transcended the usual technical categories of
motion picture production, though few can argue that Howard Shore's
music had little impact on the film; his music had become the first
fantasy epic to win the Academy Award for Best Original Score in years.
Because of the rapid rollout of this series of films, Shore was already
in the process of writing the music for The Two Towers when
he won that award. He had considered the trilogy an ongoing process
of four to five years of writing and recording, and much of the material heard
first in The Two Towers was already conceived and partially
developed before The Fellowship of the Ring was even recorded.
Audiences responded overwhelmingly well to the composer's highly
intellectual and stunningly diverse approach to the first score, even
beyond the expected rush of attention caused by new age sensation Enya's
involvement with the project. Shore managed to single-handedly put John
Williams' Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone onto a distant
back burner, despite the maestro's score serving as the basis for most
of the film score hype generated in advance of the 2001 holiday season.
In short, Shore had unleashed the first entry in a trilogy of music
already destined to be deemed a modern classic. It is recommended, for
proper discussion of the background of these scores, that you read the
Filmtracks review for The Fellowship of the Ring before
proceeding.

As with the expanded edition DVD of The Fellowship of
the Ring, collectors had been falling over themselves to obtain more
of Shore's music for that film, and luckily for them, the hasty release
of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers would at least partially
satisfy their needs in the short term. Shore ensured the continuation of
his mind-boggling, epic sound by utilizing the London Philharmonic in a
massive coliseum and later mixed the sounds of the two different
choirs (children's and adult). The scale of the second project is no
less diminished, and no better evidence of that successive effort is the
replacement of Enya with several operatic voices of similar new age
style from around the world for this score. Shore also continued where
he left off in the grand scheme of his composition for the franchise. As
the broken fellowship's journey into peril continues, and the landscape
of Middle-earth descends further into darkness, Shore bolsters his music
with an increased size of scope and brazen thematic sweep. As had been
promised by those involved with the post-production of the film, the
score for The Two Towers is bigger, more diverse, and arguably
better than its predecessor. The instrumentation and use of voices is
more powerfully expansive than in the previous film, despite the
continuation of almost all of the solo elements from that score.
Instrumentally, Shore adds the Hardanger, a Norwegian fiddle, to
represent Rohan, while the North African rhaita reed instrument accents
the Mordor theme and log drums, dilruba, wood xylophones, and the
cimbalom for Gollum all provide a rich texture for the score. The heavy
emphasis on wood-related instruments for the representation of the Ents
is a logical move not overlooked by Shore. Once again, several solo
voices are mixed with the two choirs for the score as well, and the tone
of each is meant specifically for individual cultures or scenarios. The
lowest regions of the strings and brass receive greater roles in this
score (great examples exist on the former in "Where is the Horse and the
Rider?" and the latter in "Rock and Pool"), serving a cold dose of
momentum to the forces of Isengard and Mordor that grow stronger as the
story progresses. The heart of The Two Towers is undoubtedly more
sinister, but even in these ranks, Shore maintains a sense of harmony
that continues to entice the listener.

Shore established in The Two Towers that the
original songs heard over the opening of the end credits were specific
to each film and not intended to mingle thematically with the other
scores. The performance of "Gollum's Song" by Bjork-inspiring and
longingly bitter-voiced Emiliana Torrini serves as the closing piece for
this feature, and Torrini's voice, as well as the others chosen for
performances in the score, are foreign enough in their general tone to
color Middle-earth (and even the world of men) with a fantastic edge of
mystery and intrigue. With the success of Enya's voice, Shore seemed
interested in keeping a vaguely Celtic sound to the vocals, which aided
in their smooth listenability. The choirs are again layered elegantly
with the orchestra, featuring the very wet, echoing ambient mix that
caused detractors of reverberation to denounce the first score as a
sonic mess. The use of the vocals to carry the melody of themes in
The Two Towers gave those identities far more sweeping
performances (of both lofty heights and quiet despair) that occupy
several major cues for the film. Especially effective is Shore's
technique of mixing the choirs and solo voices in The Two Towers
so that they are occasionally indistinguishable, with the solo identity
fading in and out to correspond with the action on screen. Technically
speaking, this score is, like the others in the franchise, a work of
marvel. Where The Two Towers differs from The Fellowship of
the Ring most significantly is in its demeanor. Gone are the fluffy
whistle performances of the hobbits' material, and the presentations of
the fellowship theme, the anchor of the first score, are sparse and less
blatantly heroic in most cases. Almost every theme from The
Fellowship of the Ring is indeed present in The Two Towers,
though the emphasis on each has been both switched and merged. As
Middle-earth descends into a war that brings all of its cultures
together, the music becomes appropriately muddy in its constructs,
whether that entails the overlapping of ideas or the simple, subtle
changes of notes within the progressions of a theme. It was noted in
The Two Towers that Shore extended Tolkien's fascination with the
number nine into his music; many of the themes and motifs exist in
multiples of three-note phrases, a creative nod to the author.

Thus, what listeners received in the thematic placements
of The Two Towers amounts to a crossover score. Other than a
galloping fanfare for Rohan, there is no triumphant introduction for the
handful of new themes, and with sparse major statements of previous
themes, the score marches to its end with the obvious implication that
the musical journey is not over. That said, Shore does offer more than
enough blasts of harmony and melody throughout the center of the score
to appease the thematically-minded listeners. The new themes introduced
for the film are more obscure than some might have expected, due to the
interesting fact that their pronouncement isn't as bold in the early
portions of the score (and due in part to the necessities of the
scripts). To Shore's credit, however, the style of the composer's
extremely complicated sense of thematic manipulation (as well as the
more obvious minor-major key shifting techniques) that he employed for
the previous themes have carried over to the new ones, allowing them to
blend into the mix effortlessly for the listener. Whereas The
Fellowship of the Ring is a score with extended sequences of quiet
harmony and few non-stop series of full ensemble mayhem, The Two
Towers is a tumultuous experience by comparison. It dwells in the
depths of despair for significant periods early in the score before its
final half hour offers redemption in the form of action material that
eclipses anything heard in the previous score. Thus, while The
Fellowship of the Ring is consequently a more consistent listening
experience on album in its full three-hour duration, The Two
Towers presents material both weaker and stronger, and is
therefore a work that requires attention to some areas more than others.
Shore's enhanced role for the choirs is key to defining the highlights
of The Two Towers, and moments such as the crescendo of
magnificence at the start of "The Last March of the Ents" eclipse
anything heard before in the series. With this structure in mind, a
quick cue-by-cue analysis will help once again illuminate the score's
highlights (as well as thematic references), and the following track
titles refer to those found on the superior, complete score offering of
The Two Towers in 2006 and, more specifically, the set's 24-bit
DVD presentation.

One of the most effectively melodramatic themes in this
franchise is the one for the history of the ring, and it opens
"Glamdring" with all the sense of drama that the continuation of the
story requires. This theme is a constant in the three score, whereas the
related two themes for the ring (representing its evil and seduction)
receive curiously reduced development in The Two Towers despite
the approach to Mordor. The opening cue reprises the action of Moria
heard in the previous score's "Khazad-Dum" cue during Frodo's nightmare
sequence. The actual title sequence in The Two Towers is treated
to just a glimpse of the Rohan theme early in "Elven Rope," and in both
this cue and "Lost in Emyn Muil," short, diluted versions of the
hobbits' pensive theme are barely evident. Smeagol's theme cuts short
the pleasantries in the latter cue; this theme would be gradually
overtaken in The Two Towers by Gollum's official "menace" theme
(separate from the song at the end), and the cimbalom is the specific
instrument of choice to perform not only this theme, but eventually
accompany Gollum's character throughout the rest of the films. The
opening of "My Precious" begins to exhibit Shore's intent in combining
the ring's history theme with Smeagol's pity theme, an intriguing mix.
An ugly dance for the cimbalom is cut short by Sam's French horns to
signal an ensuing battle of wills. After the groaning of horns in their
lowest registers, "Ugluk's Warriors" reintroduces the material for the
Orcs and Isengard. These themes, guided by their pounding five-note
rhythm, are intentionally largely unchanged through the first two scores. The
remaining members of the fellowship are treated to a somewhat
diminished, but still impressive performance of their theme in "The
Three Hunters," followed by another noble hint of the Rohan theme. The
remainder of this cue provides a very interesting confluence of the
material for Isengard and Mordor, musically confirming the alliance of
the two towers. The pure evil of the chopping bass string performance of
the Isengard rhythm in the middle of this sequence is not to be missed.
Growing unease and panic punctuates the largely uninteresting "The
Banishment of Eomer." The dissonant, Orc-dominated battle music in
"Night Camp," one of the most disturbing cues in the score, succeeds a
short performance of the lovely nature's reclamation theme.

When the fellowship encounters the riders of Rohan for the
first time (in "The Plains of Rohan"), a new heroic offshoot of the
fellowship theme is explored, technically credited as the "fellowship in
Rohan theme." The combination of Isengard and Mordor rhythms in the
chase music of "Fangorn" is interesting technically, but difficult to
grasp on album. The introduction of the unique instrumentation for the
Ents comes later in that cue. Overlapping of the ring's history and
Gollum's pity themes continues in the unremarkable "The Dead Marshes,"
from which a lengthy amount of material was removed from the final edit
of the film; in this cue, a distant, rising tone is an eerie cousin of
Jerry Goldsmith's similar idea in 1994's The Shadow. In "Wraiths
on Wings," Gollum's pity theme and the ring's history theme ensue again
before a reprise of the Ringwraith material from the first film
accompanies their winged arrival. A new, ascending theme for Gandalf the
White is a short highlight in the middle of the cue by that name. A
short return to the whimsy of the hobbit's rural setting theme is a nice
break in "The Dream of Trees." An intriguing development early in "The
Heir of Numenor" is the mutation of the ring's previously existing
themes into a major key variant that becomes the "fate of the ring"
theme that celebrates the end of Sam and Frodo's journey late in the
third film. A continuation of the blending of the Orc and Mordor themes
later in the cue is redundant. As the Black Gate of Mordor enters the
scene, Shore's themes of evil, whether for the ring or the locations and
characters, start to churn indiscriminately. A new hobbit theme
accompany Merry and Pippin in "Ent-draught," and the cue represents the
return of the whistle and rhythmic movements from early in the first
score. The lighthearted cue is the only comical and harmonically
entertaining one in The Two Towers, especially when the Ents'
material takes charge in the instrumentation. Worn snippets of the
fellowship and Rohan themes open "Edoras," though the meandering
conversational material does lead to the first full statements of the
Rohan material by the Hardanger fiddle. The accompanying music for Eowyn
is heard prominently on horns late in this cue and the three separate
themes for her all represent not only the character, but Rohan's more
personal side.

The sinister, ultra-low register theme for Wormtongue
occupies the opening of "The Court of Meduseld" before charging choral
clusters help free Rohan's king from Saruman's mental grip. This turn of
events allows the Rohan theme to finally receive its full fanfare treatment in
"Theoden King," merging the voice of the Hardanger fiddle with bold
brass. The funeral scene for the king's son closes the cue with a highly
dramatic and striking solo vocal, followed by ethereal ensemble singing.
The transitional "The King's Decision" extends several themes in
fragments, but makes little impact outside of its ominous, minor third
progressions in the bass; similar material extends into "Exodus of
Edoras" until a combination of the Wormtongue theme with Isengard's
tones shifts the cue into a snarling menace. The Gollum material returns
in "The Forests of Ithilien," with the two halves of his musical
identities battling to a draw. In a moment of levity, Eowyn's material
finally makes a full appearance in "One of the Dunedain," though as the
conversation becomes serious, reminders of both Gondor's music and the
Elves return. Shore replaced Enya's prior love theme for Aragorn and
Arwen with the song "Evenstar," an interesting dismissal of Nicky Ryan's
writing and a lovely return to the pleasant tones of The Fellowship
of the Ring. The break is relatively short, though, for the combined
themes and rhythms of Mordor and Isengard are unleashed without mercy in
"The Wolves of Isengard." The presence of the Hardanger fiddle, mixed
brilliantly with the choir and orchestra in the pounding of that cue,
makes for one of the more cohesive action cues in the score. The
depressing "Refuge at Helm's Deep" is harmonically pleasing, though the
fragmented presentation of the fellowship and Rohan themes are appropriately sapped of
their spirit. The brief "The Voice of Saruman" is a strongly resolute
culmination of all the Isengard themes and rhythms into one powerful
call to war. In "Arwen's Fate," Shore brilliantly swaps the
instrumentation of the worlds of men and Elves so that Aragorn's
subconscious is represented by the solo female voice of Rivendell while
Arwen, facing her own departure, is represented by an orchestral soloist
for the first time. The formal Rivendell theme develops in "The Story
Foretold," followed by the Lothlorien and ring's history themes as the
journey is monitored.

In remembrance of the slain Boromir, a full brass
performance of the Gondor theme exists early in "Sons of the Steward,"
disintegrating later as reality sets in. The "Rock and Pool" cue is a
delicious little piece for fans of Shore's melodramatic bass tones for
Gollum and the ring's history themes, both of which intertwined in the
dark fabric of this mean-spirited cue. The battle between the two
musical halves of Smeagol/Gollum continues into "Faramir's Good
Council," in which the ring's seduction theme taunts Faramir. Aragorn's
heroic theme accompanies his ride to Helm's Deep in "Aragorn's Return,"
one of the few cues to feature a minute of truly optimistic music late
in The Two Towers, with even a noble phrase of the fellowship
theme resurrected for the occasion. The low-key "War is Upon Us" is
unremarkable in its boiling thematic fragments, though the use of choir
to boost the Ents' material is a plus. One of the highlights of The
Two Towers is "Where is the Horse and the Rider?," a lengthy cue of
stirring melodic exploration. Shadowy and hesitant renditions of the
themes for Rohan, the fellowship, and Eowyn are all harmonically
gorgeous, punctuated by a rising choral crescendo of solemn defiance in
the middle of the cue. The last minute of the piece offers a stuttering
version of the Rohan theme in a "call to arms" trumpet variation over
snare; the second of these calls, faster and more resolute, is one of
the score's more memorable bursts of energy. The Lothlorien theme is
translated into a march at the start of "The Host of the Eldar" as the
Elves arrive at Helm's Deep to assist. Frightened stirrings in the bass
region offer subtle Rohan phrases before "The Battle of the Hornburg"
kicks off the last portion of the score for The Two Towers and the
subsequent eight cues mark the extremely frenetic powerhouse of
climactic action music that really defines the score, for some
listeners, as the best of the franchise. The Lothlorien theme has
completed its mutation into a call of war at the start of "The Battle of
the Hornburg," which then succumbs to the five-beat rhythm and Isengard
theme (as the Rohan theme would as well at the end). The unstoppable
nature of the rhythm, like the Uruk-hai, prevails again in "The Breach
of the Deeping Wall." The explosive urgency lent by the relentless snare
and growling low brass in this cue makes for one of the most
harmonically forceful pieces in the score.

The fellowship's own Rohan theme is heard prominently
after the explosion in "The Breach of the Deeping Wall," as well as the
Lothlorien and original fellowship theme as the heroes regroup.
Depressed string performances of the Shire's music open "The Entmoot
Decides," and the gloomy tone carries over the Helm's Deep retreat
announcement. A short moment of light choral lament from the pages of
prior Elf contemplation accompanies Haldir's death in "Retreat,"
spurring a few bursts of retaliatory fellowship action before the Orcs'
material consolidates into a brutal brass performance of the Isengard
theme. Smart combinations of the Lothlorien, Rohan, and fellowship
themes exchange phrases as the front gate of the fortress is abandoned.
The mostly simmering "Master Peregrin's Plan" touches lightly on
fragments of several themes, concluded by a tragically rising, strong
figure to represent Treebeard's discovery. The first half of "The Last
March of the Ents" is one of the score's best singular moments, building
upon the previous hints of the nature's reclamation theme with full
choral and orchestral glory. Shore returns to breakneck, rhythmic action
mode in "The Nazgul Attack," reprising the Ringwraith theme, after which the cue
shifts into a lengthy choral crescendo of the nature theme for
Gandalf the White, announcing his arrival with reinforcements. An
agitated rhythm and an explosion of the Rohan fanfare greets "Theoden
Rides Forth" with optimism, and the subsequent solo performance by boy
soprano Ben del Maestro leads to a statement of Gandalf's nature theme
that stands above the battle's effects in the film. An elongated,
frantic, and intelligently layered version of the nature's reclamation
theme reaches an eventual climax at the end of the cue, as the Ents'
attack devastates Isengard's industrial complex. The twelve-minute "The
Tales That Really Matter" wraps up this middle portion of the journey by
reminding the hobbits of both their homeland and their mission. The
score's only truly positive and pleasing performances of three of their
major themes occupy the first minutes of this cue. One last flourishing
crescendo of brass action signals the end of the Uruk-hai in this
battle. A few light-hearted bars of both the Ents' and hobbits'
material, including the use of the whistle once again, accompany Merry
and Pippin's antics.

Pieces of "Gollum's Song" begin to mingle with Smeagol's
pity theme as Frodo and Sam are sent with Gollum to fulfill their
destiny. After the fellowship theme's final rendering to accompany
Gandalf's closing words, Shore offers the journeying hobbits one full,
though slower performance of their primary, pensive theme on innocent
woodwind. The cue closes with the battle between Smeagol's pity theme,
Gollum's song, and ultimately the winner, the ring's history theme.
These last moments of "The Tales That Really Matter" lead directly into
"Long Ways to Go Yet," the finale piece that signals the true end of
Smeagol. The prelude to "Gollum's Song," as well as the song itself, are
another highlight of The Two Towers, twisting such a sinister
declaration of betrayal into a harmonically beautiful and lyrically
enticing song that remains, despite the lack of an Oscar nomination, the
most memorable of the three to be heard at the ends of these three
films. Both the wordless vocals of the boys choir at the start and
Emiliana Torrini's solos in the actual song are built upon a foundation
of extremely resolute brass and strings, and the City of Prague
Philharmonic, for one of their numerous compilations of re-recordings on
the Silva Screen label, once replaced the vocal performance with a
yearning violin solo that is almost equally powerful. The remainder of
the end credits sequence offers closure to all three of the themes that
came together at Helm's Deep (for Rohan, the fellowship, and
Lothlorien), as well as a reprise of the Rivendell theme (once again on
solo woodwinds to explore Arwen's love for Aragorn). The score's most
ambitious and uninhibited brass performance of the Rohan theme heard
late in this cue is unfortunately lacking a prominent role for Hardanger
fiddle, a seemingly curious omission of musical character considering
Shore's definition of the people of that culture with that particular
instrument earlier in the film. Confirming its role as the title theme
for the franchise, the fellowship theme offers a noble conclusion to the
score. All things considered, Shore wraps up the score quite nicely. The
combination of outrageously strong action material and Gollum's alluring
piece cause the last third of the score to more than compensate for the
slower sequences in the earlier portions of The Two Towers.
Neither of the other two entries have the strength of the some of the
singular highlights heard in these cues.

Overall, there was understandably considerable comparison
between the two available scores in the franchise for The Lord of the
Rings in late 2002, and while most film score collectors agree that
both entries (along with The Return of the King) were superior to
anything from another composer in those years, there were usually
conflicting opinions about which of the two was better. In a very
general sense, it seems that The Fellowship of the Ring has a
slight edge because of its extremely consistent listenability from start
to end, including the extensive hobbit material that remains easy on the
ears. But The Two Towers, while taking a considerable amount of
time to build steam to its own highlights, kicks into a gear in its
final half hour that the previous score never touched (in terms of
propulsion and harmony at explosive volumes). Because each story becomes
more conflicted (until the lengthy epilogue in the third film), Shore's
use of the themes coincides with an increasingly muddy musical landscape
that will frustrate listeners waiting to hear clearly delineated
constructs in bold performance. The striking solidarity of "Gollum's
Song" and a few of the bursts of the new theme for Rohan are exceptions,
but, for the most part, The Two Towers requires a bit more
appreciation for the concepts in the film to enjoy its subtleties in a
listening experience. Once again not so magnificent was the initial
album situation for the score. As could be expected, Reprise Records
descended once more to the lavish depths of commercial despair, cranking
out several different retail album versions to catch the weary Tolkien
fan or Shore collector with an open wallet. Reprise churned out similar
stunts with the first album, pulling out every marketing gimmick in the
book to help catapult the albums for The Fellowship of the Ring
to incredible, lasting heights in sales charts. It was great to see
Shore's scores (all three of them, eventually) maintain their dominance
in sales for many years after their street dates, though before the
complete sets were released for all three scores, many fans held
significant disdain for the label, especially given the fact that it was
likely only involved in the franchise because of its association with
Enya (and they therefore held the album rights to her performances for
the first film).

The original 2002 (regular) album's insert includes notes from director Peter Jackson
and album co-producer Paul Broucek. Also featured are lyrics from each of the ensemble vocal
segments from the score, as well as the Gollum song. Once again, a whopping two full pages of
credits add to the clutter and no track times are provided on the packaging, adding even this
fine point to the expansive woes of the original album.

Various useless goodies add to the cost of the 2002 limited album. The 2003 set includes general
notes about the trilogy. The 2006 complete set features a 45-page booklet with extraordinary
notation about the music by Film Score Monthly regular Doug Adams. That final set includes
extensive packaging extras, with the three regular audio CDs existing in a smaller case that
can be stored separately from the massive book-like exterior.

A detailed, track-by-track analysis (a supplement to the notes on the complete 2005 set) is
available in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format for download from Warner Brothers at the following URL:
http://www.lordoftherings-soundtrack.com/ttt_annotated_score.pdf. This additional material,
as in the previous score's set, was not included in the product itself because of cost
restrictions due to the booklet size. There is no guarantee that this
file will continue to exist at that location, so dedicated fans should download it at their
earliest convenience. It was still active at that location in late 2008.

There exists no actual packaging for the Howe Records album contained
within the 2010 Adams book. It is initially difficult to extract the CD
from its paper sleeve because they are glued tightly to the inside of
the back cover.